


Edelgard Character Studies

by Zalakbian



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Assisted Suicide, Character Death, Character Study, Crimson Flower Route, Drabble Collection, Ficlet Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24206620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zalakbian/pseuds/Zalakbian
Summary: Just a collection of small, 500ish word ficlets done via prompts, done to better understand the character of Edelgard.Ratings/Categories may vary from drabble to drabble.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	1. Goodbye, El

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt, “In the early spring, he was getting old.”
> 
> If you like this, please consider joining to talk about it on the Edeleth Discord Server I run! https://discord.gg/m2AVbJ3

The Black Eagle Strike Force had won the battle of Garreg Mach, yet Edelgard already felt as though they were losing the war. The Academy was theirs, the Knights of Seiros scattered, but Archbishop Rhea had managed to escape, and the Professor…

It was now Great Tree Moon, the beginning of spring proper, when an eighteen year old weary and bag eyed Emperor traveled once again from Garreg Mach to Enbarr, to see her father, revisit the grand court. Only now she would be travelling alone, and off to see a dying man.

Ionius was paler than death and breathing coarser than grazel when Edelgard graced his bedside. Just a few months ago he was still upright, on his throne where he belonged, but the ministers had stolen that years ago, and then robbed the crown. Edelgard sat alone with the old, dying man and held his withered hand, there was no chance Ionius would wake up now, be able to say the goodbye that she sorely wanted.

But maybe he could still hear.

“Hello, father.” Edelgard greeted through shaking lips, running her silk clad thumb over Ionius’ knuckles. There she looked open her father's ravaged and withered body, and sighed as though she were confessing to a priest. “I… I feel like I lost already, I took a gamble to end everything quickly, and it failed. Now it seems like very shortly all of Fódlan will be at war." Edelgard leaned forward and rested the side of her head upon Ionius' frail chest, hearing how fleeting a heartbeat was left. "Did I do the right thing?” She asked.

“...”

The Emperor continued off an invisible answer. “You’re right, I shouldn’t doubt myself. I’ve already lost so much, not just my brothers and sisters,” Edelgard paused to swallow a gulp, “But also their faces, and now my teacher will follow the same fate?”

“...”

Edelgard rolled over a small vial in her hand, slowly edging the waxed cork off the top. “You once said to me that the path of the Emperor is a painful and solitary one… and I believe you, I just wish to Sothis that it wasn’t true.” She stood up and reached over the bed, placing a gentle kiss on Ionius’ wrinkled cheek before carefully parting lips to tip the vial down his mouth. Her father’s breathing quickly ratcheted up, harder, but weaker. Edelgard gripped his hand hard. “I love you, father. I won’t give up, you taught me that." Ionius' chest jerked up one last time, and then he went silent. "Thank you, for everything.” Edelgard kissed his forehead, a few drops appearing on the fallen Emperor's face. "Now, be with them."

“...”

Edelgard clenched her teary eyes shut, barely managing a last whisper of, “Goodbye, father.”

“...Goodbye… El…”


	2. Trust in me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edelgard rallies the troops before battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: After declaring her intentions to topple the Church and revealing their sins to her classmates, some of them seem to still be reticent to follow along with her plans, unconvinced. Some seem to be whispering their intentions of leaving, some murmur about betrayal.

Edelgard was pondering alone in her tent just after sunset, the cool winter breeze flowing through the cracks of the folds, occasionally lifting up the corners of her assembled documents. Tomorrow, the newly christened ‘Black Eagle Strike Force’ planned to storm Garreg Mach Academy, yet all she could think about was a conversation recently finished with Hubert. Just a few minutes earlier her most trusted confidant had informed her that a pair of unkind whispers were heard outside camp, secret talks of desertion, mutiny and treason, as Hubert had described it.

The newly crowned Emperor pinched her brow, yes the talk did involve the potential of fighting against her own intentions, but given who it was coming from, and the words within, it was clear to Edelgard that they were just the whispers of scared students. They were all still so young, with so much ahead of them, yet she had started a war against the Church, potentially against the rest of Fódlan, and even if her reasons were valid and understood, she could never fault any of her friends for turning away.

Even for choosing to oppose her.

Trust was a complicated issue for Edelgard. She didn’t trust anyone around her completely, not the Professor, who was an open book with many missing pages, nor her retainer Hubert, whom she knew would sometimes act outside her intent. Maybe it was that she couldn’t trust anyone, not after what had been done to her, done by her own family. “The path of the Emperor is a painful and solitary one,” she muttered, those were her father’s final words of advice before she set out on her mission to the Holy Tomb, but did it have to play here?

Tomorrow Edelgard would give a speech before the assembled forces, one last chance to electrify the soul, and she was going to choose to trust her own woods to have their own weight. She wasn’t a dictator, forcing students into battle like Rhea, nor a scheming manipulator like Arundel, using leverage against her own to convince them. It would be her words, humanity’s words, that would inspire them to fight.

...

Now she was standing before the crowd on a large rock, emphasizing not her size, but her stature. To the Emperor’s right was the dark haired sorcerer, while on Edelgard’s left, the wielder of the Sword of the Creator. She was so caught up in the grandeur of the moment that the words flowed effortlessly from her lips, each pause a chance for those assembled to cheer and hurrah. “Through the Church, we have Crests, through the Crests, we have nobility, through the nobility, we have inequality, and through inequality, we have suffering!” Edelgard preached, keeping her hand up to signify that she was not done.

“But I know I ask a lot of you, commitment, loyalty, bravery, I ask because with every breath you have mine, and even if some among you may shudder at the thought of fighting,”

Her eyes flashed for the briefest moment upon Linhardt.

“Or those may wish to oppose my plan,”

She could see Ferdinand staring at her intently.

“What I have to ask from you now is something I struggle with everyday.”

Edelgard stepped down from her perch, now she was among them all as an equal. “I’m going to ask you to trust me, that the world we’ll be shaping will be better for everyone. That is my promise.”

Let the die be cast.


	3. Leisure Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edelgard has a whole day off with nothing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Miraculously, today, there is no more work to do. No more class assignments, no more planning for future things, no more battles she needs to attend. It was peace and calm. Edelgard has free time.

“Hubert please, do not joke with me on this.”

“I am not joking, Lady Edelgard, I speak the truth, as always.”

“Like you did with Viscount von Spee?”

“That was a difference of opinion, not truths.”

“...There has to be something.”

“And I’m telling you, there isn’t.”

Hubert stood up, tugging down on his tunic before walking towards the door, leaving behind an absolutely befuddled house leader.

“Lady Edelgard, please do try to enjoy your day off, even future Emperors deserve some leisure time.” And with that, the door clicked shut behind him.

Edelgard now lay sitting on her bed alone, dressed for the day, but finding herself with absolutely nothing to do. Class assignments were completed, seminars were not being held, and no skirmishes had been planned by the Professor. The one item she had expected to take care of, riding into town to discreetly speak with the Minister of Defence, Count Bergliez, yet according to Hubert he had already spoken to and received unconditional agreements of support from him.

Apparently Count Bergliez had always opposed the Insurrection of the Seven, yet could not go against the other Ministers alone.

Unfortunately, this left Edelgard in the unique position of having nothing to do, no plans, no tasks, nothing. She was an Imperial princess, Edelgard was used to having her days planned to the minute, it was always a fight of finding time to do her own things, never there actually being time to do that. She had no idea where to even start, there was sixteen hours to fill in, it seemed absolutely maddening, impossible, and there would be hell to pay if anyone suggested to just ‘sleep it over.”

Edelgard needed inspiration, so here she was, making slow, boring laps around the Academy grounds, feeling the minutes tick by, Cathering staring at her with more and more amusement after every lap, the Professor’s bucket of fish growing ever fuller, and the amount of training dummies in the grounds demolished by Dimitri increasing in status. That last one gave her idea, maybe it would be best to train, but just as she was about to call out to the Kingdom prince Edelgard noticed a pair of familiar lime irises spying from the distance. “Enjoy your day off, what a joke.” The princess cursed as she walked down the line of dormitories towards the staircase, swearing internally that it wasn’t giving up, it was ‘retreating and refocusing.’

And then in her sulk Edelgard walked right into another student.

“Wah! E-Edelgard?!” Bernadetta shrieked, seeing an absolute mess of newly displayed colours between their uniforms. “Oh my gosh I am so sorry please come in and let me clean that!” She continued to wail, dragging a still shocked princess into the purple girl’s dorm.

There was a collection of paints all over both of their tops, and Bernadetta wasted no time in bringing a wet rag over to wipe her clean. But what caught Edelgard’s attention was the half finished canvas in the room. “What do you have there, Bernadetta?” She pointed to the picture.

“Oh I just decided… to do a bit of painting today, landscapes and such.”

Edelgard walked over to the mess of colours, it seemed very abstract, but beautiful, muttering in silent amazement, remembering the visage of something very dear from her childhood that was now lost. But with a picture, maybe Edelgard could continue to remember.

She quickly snapped back to reality. “Sorry, yes, very fine, thank you Bernadetta.” The princess bowed to a still freaking out noble, and stepped out of the room.

“....Hubert?” She called out after a few moments of waiting, he promptly spoke out from behind her, as if the retainer had just teleported.

“I need to go back to my dorm to change, while I do that, I’d like you to get a few things for me.”


End file.
